800/1600 Winter Training to KILL IT in Outdoor???

FutureOldHead wrote:

first you've gotta drop the pace. you're doing a big disservice to yourself if you continue running easy runs at that pace, I'm kinda surprised someone else on your team/your coach hasn't said anything to you. I'm not trying to rag on you here, its just actually surprising. thats basically a must fix, but the good news is that youre already racing well, so you should see improvement in fitness just off changing that. it might take some time to adjust, but once you can run at a decent clip for all your easy, pretty much sub 9:00 for you, then start focusing on building your mileage to where ever that comfortably takes you. at the same time, start the workout programs above. they'll get you pretty fit for any event 800 up when paired with an appropriate mileage load. I guess if you don't want to/can't drop the pace on your easy runs then I would not do higher miles and would instead recommend capping out at about 30-35mpw and focusing on hitting workouts hard + and adding weight training/plyometrics

Charlie Solazzo wrote:

FutureOldHead wrote:

first you've gotta drop the pace. you're doing a big disservice to yourself if you continue running easy runs at that pace, I'm kinda surprised someone else on your team/your coach hasn't said anything to you. I'm not trying to rag on you here, its just actually surprising. thats basically a must fix, but the good news is that youre already racing well, so you should see improvement in fitness just off changing that. it might take some time to adjust, but once you can run at a decent clip for all your easy, pretty much sub 9:00 for you, then start focusing on building your mileage to where ever that comfortably takes you. at the same time, start the workout programs above. they'll get you pretty fit for any event 800 up when paired with an appropriate mileage load. I guess if you don't want to/can't drop the pace on your easy runs then I would not do higher miles and would instead recommend capping out at about 30-35mpw and focusing on hitting workouts hard + and adding weight training/plyometrics

How would I drop the pace? Anything faster straight up does not feel comfortable for me

Charlie Solazzo wrote:

I want to peak and be the best I can be for spring track (by June) and peak there. I'm a sophomore in HS and my current PRS are:

5:12 1600 meter

2:20 800 meter

In XC this year I did not have a good PR, I ran 18:14. I was absolutely killing it in the summer, running up to 55 miles per week, but my coach made me do less (Like 20-25 mpw) during the fall when the season started, and I raced 2-3 times per week and did not run as fast as I wanted to. For the winter, I want what others think would be best for me to do periodize correctly and peak in June, and I'm hesistant to listen to my coach because I lot of the stuff I hear from him is opposite from what I read for training.

I know I should build an aerobic base, I'm thinking having the base be from November to March, in which the mileage is built, but I'm NOT sure when to add workouts at the time, and what I should specifically do (like do I a tempo?, no intervals)? As well, what should be my mileage, cause I do rather be a 800/1600 guy, rather than 1600/3200.

I just want to improve as MUCH as I can possible in the coming 7 months due to a crappy XC season and gain a lot of speed + endurance.

COACH WIZARD 1 wrote:

Charlie Solazzo wrote:

I want to peak and be the best I can be for spring track (by June) and peak there. I'm a sophomore in HS and my current PRS are:

5:12 1600 meter

2:20 800 meter

In XC this year I did not have a good PR, I ran 18:14. I was absolutely killing it in the summer, running up to 55 miles per week, but my coach made me do less (Like 20-25 mpw) during the fall when the season started, and I raced 2-3 times per week and did not run as fast as I wanted to. For the winter, I want what others think would be best for me to do periodize correctly and peak in June, and I'm hesistant to listen to my coach because I lot of the stuff I hear from him is opposite from what I read for training.

I know I should build an aerobic base, I'm thinking having the base be from November to March, in which the mileage is built, but I'm NOT sure when to add workouts at the time, and what I should specifically do (like do I a tempo?, no intervals)? As well, what should be my mileage, cause I do rather be a 800/1600 guy, rather than 1600/3200.

I just want to improve as MUCH as I can possible in the coming 7 months due to a crappy XC season and gain a lot of speed + endurance.

Well, firstly you have to think about proper training in terms of HOW you do your miles and not how MANY of them you do.Further on you need to know your best speeds in training . When middle distances are your main goal your easy runs can stay at mostly 60 min .Tbe best easy pace compatible with your 5:12 1600m is about 8- 8:10 mile pace.If that pace don't feel comfortable now you can do it in intervals or shorter runs until you get used to it.I guess you don't know your max heartrate ? If knowing it you can test running your easy runs at 70-75 % of MHR and find out your pace at that heartrate. How should your training week then look like? Well, you need to work at mainly 3 speeds, your maxVO2 pace, your lactate threshold pace and last but not the least your easy pace.Good luck from The Magic Man! 🙏🧙‍♂️🇸🇪

high school xc coach wrote:

CopperRunner wrote:

Run good mileage over the winter and develop a little bit of speed/speed endurance.

A few good middle distance introduction workouts to hit over the winter:

3-4x300m. Take plenty of rest, and run them fast. Should be in the ballpark of 800m pace. Make sure to keep the rest as long as you need though. This can turn into a very hard workout that gives the incorrect stimulus if you are going into each rep not recovered from the last.

8x200m with 200m walk rest. Run them fast and controlled. You should feel the burn the last 2-3 reps.

8x400m at 3200m-5k pace, with 2:00 rest.

Do 2 of those a week, 3-5 50-150m strides on easy days, and lots of easy miles and you’ll be set up to run really solid middle distance races come spring.

be careful to keep these workouts near CURRENT pace.